From left to right: Nicole Hammersla in Twice As Bright, photo by Clay Robeson. Sarah Moser and Megan Trout in A Three Little Dumplings Adventure, phot by Jessica Holt. James Mayagoitia in Cloud Flower, photo by Clay Robeson.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, February 13, 2012 – The Bay One Acts Festival, created by over seventy artists and ten local theater companies in partnership, is proud to announce its 2012 festival program line-up. The only festival in the region that produces an anthology of the plays selected for production each year, BOA features two full programs of intrepid new theater running in repertory, and takes place Wednesdays – Sundays, April 22 – May 12, 2012, at the Boxcar Theatre in San Francisco. Tickets are $25-$45 at the door or online at www.BayOneActs.org (tickets on sale March 15).

BOA 2012 features a hand-picked selection of ten bold and adventurous short plays by local Bay Area playwrights Stuart Eugene Bousel, Erin Bregman, Anthony Clarvoe, Christopher Chen, Megan Cohen, Bennett Fisher, Sam Leichter, Ken Slattery and new devised pieces by 11th Hour Ensemble and Ragged Wing Ensemble. Each play is then assigned to a company who is tasked with producing the piece. BOA 2012 producing partners include 11th Hour Ensemble, Instrumental Theatre, No Nude Men, PianoFight, Playwrights Foundation, Precarious Theatre, Ragged Wing Ensemble, SF Theater Pub, Sleepwalkers, and Threshold, all of which share a commitment to the development and production of new work. BOA has tapped local directors Paul Cello, M. Graham Smith, Jill MacLean, Ariane Owens, Rob Ready, Megan Trout, James Mayagoitia, Sara Staley, Claire Rice, Amy Sass and BOA Artistic Director Jessica Holt will also helm a play.

Festival highlights include: Glickman Award-winner Anthony Clarvoe’s return to Bay Area theater with his first fully-produced new play, Cello, specifically commissioned for this year’s BOA festival. Ken Slattery’s Death to the Audience directed by M. Graham Smith, who will also premiere Slattery’s Truffaldino Says No this summer with Shotgun Players. Sam Leichter’s In Bed, which is the third installment of The Donna DeSantos Trilogy, and the third play in the series to debut at BOA. Megan Cohen’s Three Little Dumplings Go Bananas, is a companion piece to last year’s A Three Little Dumplings Adventure which was an audience favorite and received high critical praise. This year’s festival also features two devised theater pieces, 11th Hour Ensemble’s The Seagull Project, a take on Chekhov’s The Seagull, and Ragged Wing Ensemble’s Maybe Baby, part of The Fortune Project. This year the festival will also feature post-show spotlights where producing partners, directors, and playwrights will talk about the new work development process.

To accomplish its goal of supporting, promoting and producing short plays by San Francisco Bay Area playwrights, BOA partners with ten local companies who share the cost of production and collaborate to turn ten separate plays into two full-formed programs. The festival creates an instant theater community in San Francisco – building bridges between companies, cultivating connections between artists, and encouraging enthusiasm for the short play form. It’s also become a springboard for extraordinary new partnerships and collaborations between artists and companies, which continue to enrich the local landscape long after the festival ends.